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  • May

    Mellwood Seepage Remediation PDT members

    Virtual PDT reaches Contract Award milestone ahead of schedule

    When the COVID-19 pandemic required the Memphis District to mass telework, our Project Delivery Teams (PDT) suddenly became virtual teams. With the sudden pivot to virtual teamwork, you might expect a lag in PDT performance. However, despite their lack of experience as a virtual team, the Mellwood Seepage Remediation PDT quickly adjusted to remote teamwork and reached their Contract Award milestone, on May 19, ahead of schedule.
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    Fisk Scour Repair Project is Ready-to-Advertise

    Reaching a project milestone is the result of successive interim achievements along the way. Successive interim achievements have propelled the Fisk Scour Repair Project Delivery Team (PDT) to successfully reach its important Ready-to-Advertise milestone on May 15.
  • Levee Slides

    Pre-construction teleconference held to kick-off levee slide repairs

    Today, the Memphis District held a pre-construction teleconference with C&M Contractors, Inc. to kick-off levee slide repairs on the White River Backwater levee and along the Mississippi River levee. This teleconference discussed and issued the Notice-to-Proceed for levee slide repairs in Work Areas 1 and 2, both in Arkansas.
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    New Supplemental Program Manager, Programs Management Branch

    Simmerman began his career as a Civil Engineer in the Survey Section, where he completed a year and a half “intern” rotational assignment rotating through various Memphis District Offices. Andy has also worked on the Mississippi River Channel Improvement Project and has served over four years as a Project Manager working on projects in Eastern Arkansas, mainly the Grand Prairie Project and White River Comprehensive Study, as well as the St. Johns New Madrid Project.
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    Metal Shop makings...

    Navigation is one of our oldest missions. We’re mandated by Congress to keep the Mississippi River open for commercial navigation by maintaining a 9-foot-deep and 300-foot-wide channel, and we do that by dredging on an annual basis. So, as one might imagine, our dustpan dredge, the Hurley, gets used quite a bit keeping the Mississippi open, so our talented team at Ensley Engineer Yard have their work cut out for them keeping her running year after year. This brings us to the project Machinist Brandon Almeida is working on – it’s something the Dredge Hurley uses called “propeller rope guards.” He’s also making the mount needed to make the rope guards on – talk about complex work.
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    Memphis Builders: Behind the Mask III

    This next builder of the care facility really stood out to me – and it wasn’t the side by side braids either. It was her presence. Have you ever just met someone who gives off a certain type of aura or energy that makes you feel a little more calm or at ease? This person had it. Here from St. Joseph, Missouri, her name is Jonna Henry, and she works for a subcontractor in Safety. I guess her occupation explains that aura I felt earlier.
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    Memphis Builders: Behind the Mask II

    Building this FEMA-assigned Alternate Care Facility requires a great variety of skill sets; that’s quite obvious to most people. What isn’t so obvious is just how many of one skill set a person can find in a matter of two days and two floors worth of construction workers. After meeting Anthony Bell on Tuesday this week, the Low Voltage Technician from Memphis, I thought that was a pretty unique job title to be honest. I’d actually never heard of it before. Let me introduce you to two more low voltage technicians, Hunter Dunkin, who I found working on the second floor, and Nick Marcy, who I saw on a ladder gathering cable on the fourth floor.

  • April

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    Memphis Builders: Behind the mask

    Walking around the Alternate Care Facility construction site, people are usually focused on what workers are doing, not so much the people themselves. And if you’re like me, you’re also very focused on the ground as you don’t want to trip and fall over something as simple as a little cord. But, it’s important to get to know the people doing the work. They are the ones making this facility a reality after all. They are also the people sacrificing time with their families, working 12 hours a day and seven days a week.
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    Thank you: Building a facility of hope

    The team of people building a facility made to care for people who contract the COVID-19 virus are working around the clock to make sure that if our local hospitals can't handle the caseload at that time, no one gets turned away. We want to thank all of our workers out there making this alternate care center ha reality. No matter what part of the team a worker is on, each is important and contributes an invaluable knowledge and skill to this facility of hope and care.
  • .

    Corps electric engineer ‘makes’ much needed shields

    It’s no secret our country is experiencing a shortage of face masks. Ever since this virus was declared a pandemic, even those working in hospitals can’t seem to get their hands on the very medical supplies they need to do their day-to-day job. Some hear of the shortage and scramble to get their hands on whatever masks they can find, but not Navigational Electrical Engineer Jeffrey Farmer and the nonprofit group he’s apart of called the “Midsouth Makers.”
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    Power of the pump, no telework

    While many people are at home working in front of a computer, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have people out in the field operating equipment and facilities that, at this point in time, cannot be controlled from a workstation at home. The Graham Burke Pumping Plant is one of those “pieces” of equipment that requires people to be on-site for safe operation. Pumping Plant Operator Leaderman William “Billy” Ray and Pumping Plant Operator John “Brady” Foran are two of those valuable employees who are called upon to run one of the Corps’ most valuable facilities.
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    Corps, multiple teams ready to construct Memphis ACF

    As the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Memphis District continues to work in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - and in coordination with other federal, state, local, tribal partners, and our prime contractor AECOM – to build Memphis' Alternate Care Facility and to synchronize the interagency response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, multiple teams came together yesterday to meet and prepare for a very busy month ahead.
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    Big Island, Below Senath seepage remediation projects awarded

    The Memphis District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently awarded Task Orders to construct two seepage remediation projects in Arkansas and in Missouri.
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    Social distancing, the MVM mission

    The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has several recommendations in place to try and stop the spread of this monstrous virus, to include such measures as wearing a face mask when out in public and practicing what has become mandated in many states: social distancing. While social distancing and other precautions are in place for the right reasons, they can unfortunately have a challenging impact on business operations. Especially difficult is when your employees cannot do their job behind a computer. So what do they do?
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    Ready to Advertise despite COVID-19

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Memphis District recently met a ‘tasker’ milestone known as “Ready to Advertise” for the Clack and Norfolk Seepage Remediation Project, all while adapting to newly placed COVID-19 work procedures. About ten days before BCOE (Bidability, Constructability, Operability, and Environmental) certification, Project Delivery Team members Jeremy Ruffell, John Hudson, Kevin Keller, Conrad Stacks, Brian Johnson, Josh Koontz, and Andrew Smothers, along with many other USACE employees, were sent home for mass telework.
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    $10M contract awarded for ACM casting

    The Memphis District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently awarded a $10 million contract for articulated concrete mattress (ACM) casting at Richardson Landing Casting Field to Mississippi Limestone Corporation from Friars Point, Mississippi.
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    Army Dive Team, MVM completes critical stringout repairs

    The 74th Army Dive Detachment Team, with the help of several of our Ensley Engineer Yard skilled tradesmen, recently repaired sections of a highly critical structure here at the Memphis District Ensley Engineer Yard. The vital structure this team spent time repairing is known as the stringout, which to many might look like a pier or dock.
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    Engineers continue working through weekend to bring alternate care facility online

    A multidisciplinary team of Memphis District engineers spent the weekend preparing documents that outline the scope of work required to convert the Gateway Shopping Center on Jackson Avenue into a COVID-19 Alternate Care Facility (ACF).

  • March

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    Another Rock Island District project complete

    Ensley Engineer Yard Skilled Tradesmen recently completed a second survey vessel project for the Mississippi Valley Division’s Rock Island District. The Survey Boat “Dubuque” had repairs done to include items such as replacing the deck hatches with watertight hatches, servicing outboard engines and generator, replacing of the lower unit on both engines, replacing all interior and exterior screws on the vessel, and installing those screws using Loctite to prevent loosening.
  • Jacob Javits Convention Center

    USACE begins construction on Alternate Care Facilities

    Work is being done in support of FEMA-led COVID-19 Pandemic Response NEW YORK— The US Army Corps of Engineers, USACE, continues to make significant progress in its efforts to support the FEMA-led response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic. Nationwide, USACE has received 5 FEMA Mission Assignments (MAs) totaling $357 million, and has more than 250 personnel providing support.